Illness is a crisis that isolates us, scares us and makes us very vulnerable. How can we care for one another in Christian community when illness strikes? In this course we’ll share experiences of care (or lack of care) during sickness. We will discuss a pastoral caregiver’s role in direct care and in coaching congregational care. This will give us the opportunity to explore some of the basics of pastoral care: how to listen, how to pray with someone in crisis or offer them ritual care, how to relate to children, how to live with not being able to “fix” everything.
Instructor: Elaine Ramshaw taught pastoral care full-time for sixteen years at three different seminaries, Methodist Theological School in Ohio, Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and CDSP. She returned home to Connecticut in 2001, where she teaches for seminaries online, provides spiritual direction for Yale Divinity School students, and is a manager at an art cinema. A Lutheran laywoman and godmother of two, she is the author of Ritual and Pastoral Care and The Godparent Book.